My daughter is the last (known to our region) surviving LVAD patient on the Heartware heart pump, recalled since 2020, known to both RRH(Rochester Regional Hospital) and Strong Memorial. On Monday 4/21/25 we went to the ER for severe abdominal pain and rectal bleeding. She was admitted, stable and we were reassured it has nothing to do with her heart or pump. They did feel some pressure “may” have been due to some small pockets of fluid and gave her diuretics. On Thursday 4/24/25 they double prepped her for a colonoscopy causing her to low flow and go into cardiac arrest. As a heart failure patient myself, I know you are not supposed to have more than 2 liters of fluid a day- they gave her 8 liters in less than 48 hour period. The heart failure dr admitted they over prepped her. Best practice with a stage 4 heart failure patient is that they are monitored in an ICU setting for the prep and procedure. The hospital was negligent on both accounts.

On April 25 my daughter went into cardiac arrest due to the double prep and was moved to the ICU- intubated and on a ventilator.

On April 29, the attending doctor said to come up and that he didn’t know how much more they would be able to revive my daughter if she coded again. The whole family came to say their goodbyes, including my daughter’s 6 and 5 year old nieces. I cannot put into words the devastation our family has endured.

Thursday the doctor said this is going to be a “long ICU stay.”

Any assistance is greatly appreciated. My paid time off is quickly running out. I know financial times are challenging for everyone and if cannot assist monetarily, prayers for recovery, healing, that her lungs be renewed and restored are appreciated.

Current added expenses due to hospitalization:

Hotel cost is $70 per day, $270 a week, $1120 a month. (With the patient discount)

Gas is $30 one way $480 a month

Parking pass $35 for 30 days

Minimal food spending (my mom and I) $30 a day $720 a month

When my paid time off runs out- what I can pay minimally to not loss my house, my car or utilities is $1353 a month.

Totaling $3708 per month, given that the doctor said “long stay” I set the fund amount at $7,500 rounding up from two month expenditure of $7,381. I hope she is not hospitalized that long but can hope for the best and plan for the worst.

(We only stay M-F and drive up and back Saturday.) It is actually cheaper to stay then for gas up and back daily, but I do try to get home once a week to see my granddaughters as this is hard for everyone. We stay as much as we can because on the ventilator my daughter can’t talk. At least daily nurses get information wrong, from her medications to her oxygen settings- they’ve killed her twice already- not being here to advocate for her when she can’t speak for herself is the difference between life and death. Also as pictured we’ve had to make some reports regarding abusive handling. It is hard for me to ask for financial help, but I can’t pretend there’s not bills to pay on top of the cost to be there for my daughter- by her side- saving her life.

My granddaughter, Boo asked me a question this morning before I headed back up to my daughters bedside. She said, “Memaw, do you know who saved Virginia?” I said, “who?” She said, “God. It wasn’t her time to go yet.” ❤️